“Go to your goddamn country”, “what disgusting clothes are you wearing”, “go give birth to your country“, “If you take one more step, I will give you one step that you cannot get off the ground”. security personnel who do not allow him to pass because he is wearing a veil.
Facts are searched possible hate crime It dates back to three weeks ago, when the National Police and Fadila Said took her children to this pool with a friend. “I came to the door, my friend passed but they didn’t let me. They asked if I was wearing a swimsuit, I said no., who just came to wash my children. Then they told me I couldn’t get in,” she recalls. Her friend without a swimsuit passed by without any problems, like many women with children.
“I asked them for an explanation as to why they wouldn’t let me pass and they started insulting me. He went back to the same pool last Friday. They stopped me too and when they asked me if I was wearing a swimsuit, I showed it to them. I said no if I’m going to take a bath this time.and then they told me that that couldn’t happen either,” she recalls.
Just then, “a black boy came and said he had to change to get through. He was wearing a swimsuit, but they sent him home without going into the pool,” she says. As last time, more women started to swim in the pool with their children. “I All I asked them to do was give me an explanation. Why do they do it and I don’t. Finally Call the policeFadilla says.
When she arrived, the conversation escalated and the security guards started hurling racial insults at Fadila. “go to your goddamn country” or “what disgusting clothes are you wearing”. They even threatened to beat him if he didn’t go. “I went out to sit on a bench on the street while they were coming, but they sprayed me with water to sit on it,” he reports.
Valencia city council assures that it has already made a request. notify concession company From the pool, where he guaranteed not to let Fadila in because he was “trying to bathe in street clothes and that’s forbidden”.
Fadila condemned what had happened and was convinced that it was a case of racism. HE He is Saharawi and has been in Spain for 22 years.and that day he went to the pool with a Moroccan friend. “She was wearing a summer dress and her skin was quite white. Although the bra straps were visible, they let it pass smoothly, so I didn’t pass. I just asked them to explain why I couldn’t pass, and she passed,” they claim.
“Mom I don’t want to be black anymore”
What upsets Fadila the most is that her 5 and 8-year-old children had to witness this. had a seizure anxiety and keep taking pills To calm him down after the incident.
“When I got home in the evening, my son picked me up and said, ‘What nonsense to say we are Hispanic by having a Spanish identity,’ and then He said to me, ‘Mom, I don’t want to be black anymore.. Not shyly, on the contrary, he always says that he is black. But that day he told me he didn’t want to be black or Arab anymore,” Fadila complains.
The people responsible for security also made other statements according to the complaint. They described Fadila as “confrontational” and they assured that “there are many gypsy women in the pool and if we get you together in half an hour it will be messy”.
Fadila’s children continue to comment on this. “They made them feel something they weren’t aware of. Now I’m taking off my veil and they don’t want to be Arab because ‘they won’t let you enjoy‘. Recently, they asked me whether it will always be like this, will it always happen to us,” he accuses.
“Negotiation is over”
Security personnel also referred several times to the political change that led to Vox entering the Government. “Your bargain is over, they will break your wings from now on“, they snapped at Fadila.
Ana Isabel Martínez of the NGO Valencia Refugi, a increase in hate speech and hate crimes since the past 28 May with expressions like “Now they feel legitimate, every time there is talk of a change of government, because they now believe their actions are valid,” he says.
Fadila, who has not experienced such a strong period of racism in her 22 years in Valencia, explains that she has seen an increase in discriminatory comments in a few years. “I hear things from young mothers that I would never expect. public school my kids go to. There are some very ugly comments saying that I should go back to my country because the economy is bad and I can’t stay here.”
Juan Augusto Epam, also from Valencia Refugi, also claims the problem with the claim forms. “We found out later, but Fadila brought a sheet with her. Name, phone number and address of some people who threatened to beat him. We think there should be another system that is safer for the victim,” he explains.
The Authority calls for the cooperation of citizens in such cases. “It’s normal for people to look the other way in these situations.. If they see such a situation, we ask people to stand by the victim. “None of the women who walked in turned against Fadila to help her,” they claim.
understatement
Another problem with such situations is very low reporting. Only one in ten hate crimes reported, according to an estimate by the Prosecutor’s Office, and for several reasons. The first of complete ignorance. The second is fear; “Many immigrants pull back in the middle of the process because you don’t have a criminal record to renew the paperwork, and they’re afraid and drop the complaint even though they’re the ones making the complaint and have nothing to do with it,” says Martínez.
People who do not even have documents, fear of deportation When they come to report to the police station, it can be more than just a complaint. Institutions recommend filing a complaint directly with the prosecutor’s office for hate crimes in such cases.